Non-financial firms add record value

Chris Papadopoullos was City A.M.'s economics reporter until February 2016.

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Chris Papadopoullos

A MEASURE of how much value non-financial firms add to the economy reached £1 trillion for the first time in 2013. The set of data, released by the Office for National Statistics yester­day and known as approximate gross value added at basic prices (GVA), represents the income generated by firms less the cost of goods and services used to create this income.

Between 2012 and 2013, GVA for non-financial firms climbed by 8.1 per cent, the largest annual per­centage rise since 1997. Increases were seen across all sectors for the first year since the start of the 2008 recession.

The non-financial services sector GVA grew by 9.7 per cent, the production sector ­by 4.7 per cent, the distribution sector by 6.5 per cent and the construction sector by 10.7 per cent.

The growth takes the GVA level 11.3 per cent higher than in 2008. The news adds further evidence to the view that the UK is shaking off the effects of the recession with additional data from the ONS released this week showing that wages had started beating inflation for the first time in five years.